Big Beach Trip Catch Up

I hatched a plan to help the eight road hours go by:  every hour I would draw what I could see as we headed east.  These first nine quick quick sketches are bumpy-road speed drawings.

  Immediately after a quick trip to the grocery we all ate dinner and then paraded down to the beach.  Nate and I started a shell collection, and above are some prizes from that first long twilight hunt!

 There was a historical park on the sound in Corolla.  At one time it was a big duck hunting camp area.  This was one of the short day trips some of us made.

The days really run together in a blur of intense heat and sunlight, playing in the cool ocean, building sand castles, shell collecting.  This guy was under an umbrella next to our beach camp.

Here he is again with a part of a horseshoe crab shell not really next to him.

Nate and Kerstin playing in the surf!  All nine of the kids were fantastic!

A ghost crab that Kerstin found on the beach. Nate and I tried to enlist flies and ants to clean it, but it was still too stinky to be allowed in Erik's car, so we had to be content with a drawing.

Here's Abby looking like she will in a few years.  At bottom are some houses as seen from our third floor deck.  And on the right are views of the sound that Mike and I found at the end of a boardwalk through a marsh.

At top left some marsh hibiscus flowers near the boardwalk.  On the right is the castle that David, Jacob, and I made.  The head on the left was part of the castle but is shown from the back in the castle drawing.

Detsils of castle building on the left showing a sacrificial altar at center on a cippa surrounded by scallop shells.  Pelicans fly but too fast for my pen.  At bottom right the extraordinary sunset in mist that Barnaby and Nate and I watched together on the third floor deck.

The house across the street, kitted out with the same amenities as our house and all the others on the street: pool, hot tub, basketball hoop, outdoor shower,etc.

A little wooden box from Mike filled with tiny shells;  Kate with her spikey toes drawn by Abby with help, soap that Nate made at soap-making camp.  And on the right, the first few drawings from the road home.

Fastest week ever.  A great reunion.  How can it already be over???